In conclusion, the Positioning concept is an easy to understand example of how things aren’t just about what they are, but also about what they appear to be. It ties closely to the notion that in communication, a message passes between a sender and a receiving audience with a completely different frame of reference. If the message passes at all: as Reis already pointed out, it needs to fight for attention in a sea of competing messages and noise. Perception matters. In the training course I referred to, the one where I first heard the Hopefuls vs Fearfuls example, one attendant actually got pretty disillusioned by all our talk about perception and positioning. “I work on all these difficult problems, bug fixes and features every day, and I am beginning to wonder what the point is if this is anyway not what we communicate to the customer.” That is of course also not the truth. If your positioning isn’t underpinned by the product’s reality, the customer will see through your attempt at perception management and see it for what it is -only spin and vacuous fluff which all of us are only too familiar with. Nevertheless, there’s purpose and method in marketing – and left brainers solely focused on the product are missing out on half a world. The truth of perception is reality too.